The Black Dahlia Murder vocalist Trevor Strnad recently took to social media to rant against music piracy. Have a read below.
HOW IT IS: We have almost 1,000,000 likes on here. Will we sell 1,000,000 copies of Everblack? Fuck no! The reality is that 98% of you ‘fans’ are going to be content to steal the album and in turn we get nothing… a laughable fragment of the ‘likers’ will actually be cool and pick it up.
It’s not about the money, the reality is that we get chump change for CD (and digital) sales BUT WE NEED TO SELL THEM TO EXIST! If there are no record sales the music industry will stomp us out like a bug and it’ll be completely over… the sales show them ‘how relevant’ we are.
If you don’t buy the albums they’ll determine that there is no demand for TBDM, and there won’t be any more awesome concerts, tours, dvds nor new music. Sure we understand you may really love our tunes, but if you haven’t paid for them, it’s a total loss to us… all the love in the world isn’t going to mean shit in the end. We need your support and every two years I am going to ask the same thing of you and make the same goddamn argument.
Think of it like a vote… If you’d like to see us continue our reign of terror over the metal world, you’ll pick up a copy of “Everblack”. It’s as simple as that. – Trevor on behalf of The Black Dahlia Murder
As to be expected, there was negative backlash to the statement, especially from those who buy merch at shows as opposed to CDs off shelves… To which Trevor followed up:
Clarification for the alarmists: I’m not saying you who come to the shows and buy merch aren’t appreciated… what I am saying is that we need to sell this album because each sale means something in the grand scheme of things. WE ARENT FUCKING RICH. I don’t really care if we see ANY money from the preorders or any CD sale AT ALL… like I said…. it’s literally a fraction of a penny per album… you can fucking keep it.
WE MAKE THE MONEY WE SURVIVE ON FROM YOU ALL COMING TO THE SHOWS AND BUYING TICKETS AND MERCH. We are eternally grateful for your support in this manner. This is absolutely true and has not changed. What I am saying is that we need BOTH kinds of support… they are both integral. All I was trying to do is to rally the troops… to help them understand that selling the copies IS important to us… it was not an attempt to alienate anyone. I should have worded things better…. yes.
For those of you saying that the industry is operating on a completely archaic model… I completely wholeheartedly agree… but until things change this is how it is. – Trevor
Here’s to the reign of terror \m/
